As a note, I thought about trying a removal, and I have the tracking pretty locked down, but painting in the details of the chair and balcony behind chewy is pretty tough without anything to work with. If I had a reference of what that chair looks like from the front, I could possible do a removal. I had to rotoscope Yoda anyway to keep his coloring.

Also, oddly enough, the original motion tracking (presumably by ILM) in the original shot seems off, and background bounces around as the camera tilts. This is easiest to see by watching the top-right corner towards the end of the shot. Unless this is supposed to be the platform bouncing?!

If I’m planning to do a viewing of the saga before December, which of your edits will be ready in time? It sounds like V6 of the PT will be good to go, but if I’m correct only ESB is completed in your OT edits? And did you maybe mention releasing an updated work print for TLJ:L?

It’s the HDTV capture from schorman13, for reasons expressed earlier. Given the look of TAS, the deleted scenes used, and even the brief Boleyn footage, I think it’s a little better source to use. Not all-around better, but better for cohesion.

Hal, any chance of not using the Boelyn footage for an updated release and reverting to the “yeah she’s dead” ending? Your HAL9000 version(s) really are the gold standard in every way except for the incredibly jarring progression of Padme in bed with baby Leia and then suddenly Luke being summarily deposited on Tatooine without any real explanation of why this is happening. Padme just kept Leia and tossed Luke??? It’s a real wtf moment that probably can’t be solved given the source material.

Anyway, love your work. The way you have Windu get right to business to execute Palp and how Anakin immediately jumps after Obi-wan and gets his legs sliced were awesome. Having no Yoda palp fight did make the Obi-Ani battle so much better.

It’s the HDTV capture from schorman13, for reasons expressed earlier. Given the look of TAS, the deleted scenes used, and even the brief Boleyn footage, I think it’s a little better source to use. Not all-around better, but better for cohesion.

Hal, any chance of not using the Boelyn footage for an updated release and reverting to the “yeah she’s dead” ending?

^ No, I’ve gotten quite used to that being that way by now. However, there have been a few projects from others that have taken the core of LOE and modified that part and other things. See link below for one.

For me, the whole edit was shaped and crafted with this change in mind, so undoing that would mean I’d need to undo a great deal of what makes LOE what it is. It would need more than an ‘alternate ending’ feature. At the very least, reverting the order of scenes and which are included, taking a few good strides back in the direction of ROTS.

You know what? Screw it. Enough people have asked for this the past few years that, even though I wouldn’t want it, I’ll just release a version with the alternate (or original) ending. I won’t give it subtitles or commentary track or anything special, and I’ll just release the big mkv version. Anyone inclined can download it and reencode to their satisfaction.

It will be identical up to the point at which the medical robot comes out. It’ll be the original version through the end of the movie, save for removing the line “she has lost the will to live” and altering the Vader scream to the Russian version as in LOE proper.

“I have to say that I felt George’s group of six films had more innovative visual imagination, and this film was more of a retrenchment to things you had seen before and characters you had seen before, and it took a few baby steps forward with new characters.” - James Cameron about Episode VII.

If you think about it TPM ruins everything. Without it we could have had AOTC as the 1st Prequel film, a middle film all about the atrocities of the clone wars, and then ROTS where Padmes kids are already alive and no need for a half-assed George Lucas retcon. ROTS should just end with a Jar Jar funeral while the Ewoks dance. Yub-yub. Lol

You know what? Screw it. Enough people have asked for this the past few years that, even though I wouldn’t want it, I’ll just release a version with the alternate (or original) ending. I won’t give it subtitles or commentary track or anything special, and I’ll just release the big mkv version. Anyone inclined can download it and reencode to their satisfaction.

It will be identical up to the point at which the medical robot comes out. It’ll be the original version through the end of the movie, save for removing the line “she has lost the will to live” and altering the Vader scream to the Russian version as in LOE proper.

I’m rethinking the inclusion of the balcony scene for V6. As I look at it, it doesn’t seem to have as ready of a place as it did in the final cut of ROTS. I know we’ve been over this, but I’m going to let it percolate for a while since I wouldn’t be able to sit down and make this change for at least a couple days.